BY HEADS OF STATES at COP22
We, Heads of State, Government, and Delegations, gathered in Marrakech, on African soil, for the High-Level Segment of the 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 12th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, and the 1st Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, at the gracious invitation of His Majesty the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, issue this proclamation to signal a shift towards a new era of implementation and action on climate and sustainable development.
Our climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate and we have an urgent duty to respond.
We welcome the Paris Agreement, adopted under the Convention, its rapid entry into force, with its ambitious goals, its inclusive nature and its reflection of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances, and we affirm our commitment to its full implementation.
Indeed, this year, we have seen extraordinary momentum on climate change worldwide, and in many multilateral fora. This momentum is irreversible – it is being driven not only by governments, but by science, business and global action of all types at all levels.
Our task now is to rapidly build on that momentum, together, moving forward purposefully to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to foster adaptation efforts, thereby benefiting and supporting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.
We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority.
We call for strong solidarity with those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and underscore the need to support efforts aimed to enhance their adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability.
We call for all Parties to strengthen and support efforts to eradicate poverty, ensure food security and to take stringent action to deal with climate change challenges in agriculture.
We call for urgently raising ambition and strengthening cooperation amongst ourselves to close the gap between current emissions trajectories and the pathway needed to meet the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.
We call for an increase in the volume, flow and access to finance for climate projects, alongside improved capacity and technology, including from developed to developing countries.
We the Developed Country Parties reaffirm our USD $100 billion mobilization goal.
We, unanimously, call for further climate action and support, well in advance of 2020, taking into account the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries, the least developed countries and those particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.
We who are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol encourage the ratification of the Doha Amendment.
We, collectively, call on all non-state actors to join us for immediate and ambitious action and mobilization, building on their important achievements, noting the many initiatives and the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action itself, launched in Marrakech.
The transition in our economies required to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement provides a substantial positive opportunity for increased prosperity and sustainable development.
The Marrakech Conference marks an important inflection point in our commitment to bring together the whole international community to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time.
As we now turn towards implementation and action, we reiterate our resolve to inspire solidarity, hope and opportunity for current and future generations.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - The World Bank and Ithmar Capital have announced the creation of the Green Growth Infrastructure Facility, the first green fund dedicated to Africa.
The World Bank Group and Ithmar Capital, have entered into a memorandum of understanding relating to the setting up of a Green Growth Infrastructure Facility for Africa ("GGIF Africa") which primary objective is to catalyse the transition in Africa to a green economy.
The two institutions will be supporting resource efficient, low carbon, inclusive growth within the ecological limits of the planet, clean energy and improved energy access, low carbon transportation and logistics including ICT and efficient utilisation of water resources.
GGIF AFRICA's intermediate objective is to catalyse and leverage private capital flows for investment in efficient, sustainable, low carbon intensity infrastructure in Africa.
World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim said climate change is the most significant environmental, economic and social challenges of our time. It poses a substantive threat to the well-being and standard of living today, and for future generations. The COP 22 is mobilising stronger and more ambitious climate action by all Parties and non-Party stakeholders," Kim said.
WB's Climate Change Action Plan focus is on the total resources mobilised and catalysed not only on its own account lending, and adjust internal processes and incentives accordingly.
"Africa has become a "strategic priority for Morocco''. Relying on its growing economy and European proximity, the Kingdom is working towards becoming a competitive African hub.
Morocco is today a key economic and strategic partner for most African economies, as is evidenced by the exponential rise in direct investments in high-value added sectors such as banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy agriculture and social housing," said King Mohammed VI.
He added that as the world mobilises to fight climate change and transition to a green economy, it is clear that available public capital would fall far short of the amount needed to avoid a major rise in temperatures.
"In this context, GGIF Africa would mobilize capital from the private sector, through public-private partnerships ("PPP") structures at GGIF Africa and project's levels. Public financial contributions would be designed to maximize private investment. The main focus for the GGIF Africa would be deployment of private capital for commercially bankable PPPs, and de-risking marginally non-bankable projects to render them viable. Tools may include innovative mechanisms for project preparation and deal structuring, and strategic design of fund and project capital structures," he said.
The World Bank and Ithmar Capital intend to work in close partnership with a broad range of public and private investors, including regional development banks, global and regional institutional investors with the objective to increase private capital participation in green infrastructure investments and achieve resource efficient, low-carbon, low impact and resilient growth in Africa.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) said Africa's infrastructure agenda requires a regional approach as there are a large number of national economies under US$10 billion GDP (31), landlocked countries (15) and trans-boundary rivers (60 basins), and an uneven distribution of natural resources and population centers.
"There are major infrastructure access needs. For example, Africa needs 7,000 MW of new power generation capacity each year, but has been installing only 1,000 MW in recent years.
Less than five percent of agricultural land is irrigated, less than 10 per cent of hydropower potential has been tapped, and only 58 per cent of Africans have access to a clean water source," Adesina said.
MARAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Africa's climate is one of the least-researched and poorly understood, but a new report provides reliable scientific information about the continent's changing climate, equipping decision-makers to plan better.
Africa's Climate: Helping decision-makers make sense of climate information is the first major programme-wide report to emerge from Future Climate for Africa (FCFA). FCFA comprises five major research projects to develop better climate information for Africa and to test how the new information could be used in decision-making, with potential benefit for millions of affected Africans.
African countries are facing many challenges in achievement of their development goals, which may be hampered by the impact of climate change," said Wilfried Pokam Mba of University of Yaounde, a FCFA researcher in Cameroon adding that in this context, fulfilment of development efforts over the continent requires reliable climate information.
"FCFA provides high quality climate information to help governments and businesses make more climate-resilient investments." This report, he says, is one such example of information being made available to help guide policy-makers, scientists and practitioners on climate change issues affecting the continent," said Sam Bickersteth, Chief Executive of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, which acts as the 'knowledge hub' for the FCFA programme.
He added, "It is hoped that decision-makers can steer the continent's infrastructure and development plans in a direction that can capitalise on the opportunities presented by climate change in future, while offsetting the potential ill effects."
Written by some 40 leading experts, the report presents an Africa-wide overview of climate trends, and is distilled into 15 fact-sheets that are tailored for specific sub-regions and countries. The report captures the current state of knowledge, and explores the 'burning scientific questions' that still need to be answered. FCFA's five research teams will be delivering many of these answers in the next three years, to 2019.
Some of the key findings are that climate modelling indicates that east Africa is expected to warm in the next five to 40 years, although changes in rainfall are much less certain and that extreme events (floods, droughts, heatwaves, and so on) are expected to change and in most cases increase into the future.
The region is severely understudied, because of a lack of scientific observation data, such as that from weather stations.
Southern African economies are exposed to weather and climate vulnerabilities, particularly through sectors such as agriculture, energy, and water management. It follows that the supply of essential resources are all extremely at risk as the climate becomes more changeable and extreme.
Most government departments are planning according to a three- to five-year time horizon, while the climate projections are based on decades-longer timeframes, such as looking to 2050 and beyond.
Applying past data to the future, which is also used by other ministries, is potentially problematic as it assumes that the future climate will mirror the past, which may not be the case for projected climate change.
Although there is uncertainty associated with the future climate projections, climate change will have significant economic impacts across Africa.
Future climate change is likely to lead to new risks: the negative impacts seen from today's climate variability are likely to become worse.
While there is often uncertainty in climate projections, this should not be a reason for inaction.
"This report provides a synthesis of our current state of knowledge and identifies where further multi-disciplinary research like FCFA is needed," Chris Taylor of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UK).
He added, The impacts of climate change in Africa will affect lives across the whole world," said John Marsham, University of Leeds. "This report is an important first step for the FCFA programme. It addresses the urgent need to both improve climate change predictions for Africa, and to better use those predictions for decision-making."
Catherine Senior of the UK Met Office said the report describes the urgent need for climate models to provide more robust projections of future climate change over the African continent. "By applying an 'Africa lens' to developing climate models, we can speed up the rate of progress to deliver more confident projections for decision-makers to use," she said.
Victor Indasi at the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) at the University of Cape Town said Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate variability and change mainly due to its low adaptive capacity. "This FCFA report is therefore a must-read for everyone working on the continent especially within climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water and energy," he said.
MARRAKECH, Morocco (PAMACC News) - Security experts have called on world leaders to address climate risk in their national, regional and international security planning.
Speaking at UN climate change conference in Marrakech in Morocco, they noted that climate change is already contributing to social upheaval and even violent conflict by making bad situations worse.
"It places stress on water, food and energy resources. It interacts with existing stresses like poverty, marginalisation, ethnic strife, resource stress and religious differences to drive instability. As competition for already scarce resources increases, climate change could halt or even reverse peace and development gains made over the past decade," said Retired Admiral Chris Barrie, Royal Australian Navy Honorary Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies
Centre, Australian National University.
Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney of the US said climate change promises to make many of the complex crises the world currently facesmuch harder to solve. "Unchecked, the effects of a warming climate will force people from their homes, destabilise societies and markets, create new sources of social and political tension, and even contribute to state fragility and failure. All of this can providea vacuum for extremist groups to thrive," he said.
Retired US Marine Corps Former Inspector General and CEO, The American Security Project noted that climate change increases in disasters will place additional strain on military and civil response capabilities – often the first responders. Overstretched governments, militaries and
humanitarian teams will struggle to respond to supercharged natural disasters. "Extreme disasters provide an additional, preventable risk that could drive further fragility and conflict in vulnerable regions, and make existing conflicts harder to stabilise," he said.
Nick Mabey, Co-Founding Director and Chief Executive E3G, United Kingdom called for integration of climate risk across the whole of government and the holistic management of crises as this will help maintain stability in the face of the worsening impacts of climate change and ongoing security challenges, and can help protect and improve people's safety, health and livelihoods.
Dan Smith, Director Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said geopolitical dynamics may change and domestic contexts may shift, but robust security within nations, across borders, and around the world is impossible without building climate resilience, and incorporating climate risk into military operations, tactics, strategy and training.
"Addressing climate security risks in alliances and major international forums is essential: in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the African Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Organization of American States, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the UN Security Council, as well as building on the efforts of the G7 foreign ministers through the A New Climate for Peace project," he said.
Retired Lieutenant General Balananda Sharma, Royal Nepalese Army called on world leaders to build on the exemplary international action on climate change achieved in 2015. "We must think beyond energy policy, and integrate climate risk into national, regional and international security planning in a way that is commensurate with the risks," he said.
The experts belong to the Climate Security Working Group-International, an international forum of security experts and professionals focused on sharing information and best practices regarding the international security risks of climate change, and developing policies for addressing those risks.
